Top Boy had a massive advertising push by Channel 4
something they hadn’t done in a long time for a drama. A massive poster
campaign accompanied, by numerous TV spots. In my eyes it didn’t live up to the
buzz. Don’t get me wrong I thought the
acting was brilliant; the last scene where the young main protagonist goes to
stab Ashley Walters character I thought was beautifully staged with the non
diegetic music the acting in this scene was intense, powerful and wholly believable.
My gripe with the show is that it’s another tale about poor working class kids
in London’s ghettos selling drugs and stabbing and shooting each other we have
seen this all before. Top Boy didn’t do anything new or fresh with this story
and the message I got from the end of it is, that you can sell drugs, murder
people get away with it and live the high life . Dramas like these should be
a cautionary tale that this isn’t the way out of poverty not reinforce the
council estate way of mind. They had the platform to do something fresh with
this story; I believe if they had told the story through the depressed mothers
eyes (the mother of the protagonist) I believe Top Boy would have told an
innovative story and would have brought freshness to this tale. I for one am quite bored of this portrayal of ‘supposed
black culture’ (I say supposed in the thinnest way) in films and dramas, it’s
like there isn’t any normal black people out there who don’t live this lifestyle.
Where are all the stories about the positive
black kids who don’t turn to a life of crime? We have so many black actors and writers who
are from rough estates across London who have made it in their chosen professions,
where are the stories about these people who overthrew obstacles in the right
way?
